REFLECTIONS ON THE SPORTS SCENE IN EUROPE

"Soccer, it appears, is the only thing we don't want crammed down our throats. What does this attitude toward the World Cup say about the U.S.? It illuminates many of our least flattering qualities as a nation, not least of which is a breathtaking incuriosity about the rest of the world."
- Steve Rushin, Sports Illustrated, June 12, 2006

While I was recently on vacation with my family in Europe - specifically Spain, Italy and France - I was curious to get a sense of each country's sports culture. Here are some of my reflections (in chronological order):

1) After our Delta Airlines flight landed at Aeropuerto Internacional El Prat de Barcelona and we walked out of the gate and through customs, I noticed right away several sports shops. From the looks of them, they were all speaking futbol to me - only soccer uniforms and balls were on display in the front window. Around the airport, I saw several FC Barcelona jerseys (Spain's most prominent club team) with the name "Messi" on the back for Lionel Messi, FCB's young star who has been touted as "the new Diego Maradona" because of his Argentinean roots. Besides soccer represented in the terminal, there were no other sports signs of life.

2) After we checked into our hotel, Citadines, we strolled down Las Ramblas, the city's most popular strip lined with trees and featuring scores of mines, entertainers, cafes and kiosks. One street artist was dressed in soccer attire doing tricks with a ball, including one where he kicked it over his head onto the back of his neck where he balanced it for some time. During our walk, I stopped by several newsstands, called La Vanguardia, to see what kind of sports magazines they sold. Most of them were soccer publications, but I came across two for baloncesto (basketball), which I bought for about three Euros each. One was called Gigantes and the other was Revista Oficial de NBA, the Spanish version of the NBA's Hoop Magazine. Gigantes, to no surprise, covers European basketball, its top teams and players. In the issue I picked up, there were several two-page pull-out posters of some of the top players in Europe. Most of the advertisements, which ran at the lower portion of the right page, promoted summer basketball camps throughout Spain. There was only one section featuring the NBA, which discussed the playoffs. With Revista Oficial de NBA, I noticed the staff from the masthead all work in Barcelona. What stuck out for me about the magazine was its focus on NBA forward Pau Gasol, who's from Spain and plays for the Memphis Grizzlies. There was an article recapping Gasol's season with the Grizzlies and a section in the back called "Las cartas de Pau Gasol" ("Pau Gasol's Letters") where Gasol himself wrote his predictions for the NBA Playoffs and explained who he thought should be the 2006 MVP. His pick was another foreign player Steve Nash, who was born in South Africa and grew up in Canada.

3) On our way to the Port de Barcelona to start our seven-day cruise, on the Norwegian Jewel, I asked the taxi driver, "Como es popular es el baloncesto en Espana?" He said, very ecstatically, "Muy popular!" I then asked him, "Sabe quien Pau Gasol?" And again he responded with a lot of excitement, "Oh, si, si!" Finally I asked him about the World Cup. He pointed to a schedule he had taped to his dashboard, which listed the days and times of when Spain was playing. We definitely got a kick out of seeing that.

4) One of the first things we did after we checked into our cabin was head toward the cruise's information center to inquire about the NBA Finals. We wanted to see if the sports bar was going to be airing Game 1 on Thursday (3 a.m. Friday our time). We asked a stodgy man at the desk several questions, but he kept repeating, "Sir, if enough people put in a request for the game, we may carry the broadcast. We're not sure right now." It was like we were speaking a foreign language to him. Perhaps if we had said, "World Cup," he would've understood better; as it is, most of the ship's employees were not from the U.S. but from the Philippines.

5) As newer and bigger cruise ships enter the overall fleet, there seems to be one component about them that keeps on expanding: Sports. On the Norwegian Jewel, which debuted last year, there was one game I had never seen on board a ship: Shuffleboard. Other than that, the regular activities included a gym, basketball/tennis court, golf cage, running track, sports video games in the arcade and card games in the casino. Several times during the week, the kids' center organized a late-night dodgeball contest on the basketball court. If you think about the all-included food you eat and midnight buffets you can't resist, there better be numerous ways to burn off that fat.

6) On our first sightseeing day, we took a tour bus up one of the mountains in Sicily into a small town called Taormina. As we walked through the quaint streets bordered by low-rising buildings with terracotta roofing, we noticed a lot of Italia soccer gear being sold. But what really caught our attention were several Miami Heat hats and shirts worn by tourists from the cruise. As we passed each other, we yelled in unison, "Go Heat!" Because of the Heat contingent on the cruise, we felt more optimistic that the Jewel would have no choice but to air the Finals.

7) The next day we went on a guided tour of the old city of Pompeii, which was buried under 21 feet of volcanic ash 2,000 years ago by Mount Vesuvius. Seeing the excavated ruins was probably the highlight of my vacation because you're able to walk through the most of the original streets and the remains of the foundation. One landmark we saw was the city's main amphitheater, which was the oldest in Roman times erected in 70-80 BC. Inside the 20,000-capacity arena were gladiatorial contests. The city also had a workout area where there once was assorted free weights and several swimming pools. On our way back to board the ship, we stopped at a newsstand by the dock in Capri. To compare with the Barcelona basketball magazines, I picked up an Italian publication called Superbasket. It contained mostly feature stories with hardly any pictures or advertisements, a bit boring to look at since I couldn't read it, of course. There was one article about Andrea Bargnani and his Benetton Treviso club team. Many say that the 7-foot, 250-pound Bargnani is the best player ever to come out of Italy and the potential No. 1 pick in this Wednesday's NBA Draft.

8) Back on the cruise later that night, we made a pass by the information desk one last time to get an update on the NBA Finals situation. A nicer man said that unfortunately the cruise wouldn't be showing the game because ABC, the host broadcaster, hadn't sold the television rights to the Norwegian Cruise Line. We asked if there was a way we could buy the game individually for our room, but that also wasn't a possibility. We were disappointed, but then again, we probably would have passed out before the tipoff at 3 a.m.

9) The following day we headed to Rome. When we got there, our tour bus parked a few blocks from the Coliseum, right next to a soccer field where two teenagers were practicing a penalty-shot situation. Although the playing ground was uneven dirt, the kid who was kicking was extremely accurate with every attempt, bending the ball perfectly like Beckham. I thought about all the dreams of American streetball players back home and the long hours they put into shooting into hoops with no nets or backboard squares. And what do a lot of them end up having in common? Some serious game.

10) The last stop on our cruise was Villefranche, France, located on the magnificent French Riviera. From there, we took a 10-minute train ride to Monte Carlo where we walked on the street used in the Formula 1 Grand Prix just a week earlier. Part of the track rides along the marina packed with 60-foot yachts, goes up the hill around the famous Casino Royale and then comes back down near the five-star Hotel de Paris. Just to get some perspective how expensive the hotel is, when we had lunch in its outdoor cafe we ordered three club sandwiches, two orange juices and two Cokes, and it was 71 Euros. That's around 90 dollars! After we left Monte Carlo, we took a 15-minute train ride to Nice, France. We didn't have much time there because we were running behind and didn't want to miss our cruise, but I was able to browse one of the train station's newsstands. I was in a hurry, so I quickly grabbed one called Le Foot (pictured above). Under its heading, it said, "Special Mondial," which was a reference to the issue's World Cup preview. Inside, the pictures of the players were as tall as the size of the page, an underlying theme as to why soccer is as big as it is in Europe, and still kickin'.

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The day after I arrived back in my apartment, I picked up the New York Times outside my front door and turned to the sports section. The top headline was: "Americans Are Ready, Without Excuses." Although I missed my European whirlwind tour, I was proud that my country was participating in the World Cup after being immersed for a week overseas in a soccer-frenzied environment. This is a time, only once every four years in sports, when unbridled patriotism sweeps across the globe as millions of fans reach for their face paint, costumes and musical instruments. The World Cup can bind or break a nation. Aren't you just a little bit curious?